Google Voice adds Google+ Circles

Google continues to expand the reach of its social network and announced today that it is integrating Google+ Circles into Google Voice, its free VoIP PBX-type of voice calling and voice message management service. The integration allows you to assign different answering rules for each of your Circles.

In Google’s words, this allows you to direct calls from your “Creepers” Circle directly to voicemail, calls from your “College Buddies” Circle to hear you rap your voicemail greeting, and calls from your “Family” Circle to ring through to your mobile phone. The integration certainly encourages the use of both Google Voice and Google+, allowing folks who prefer calling to connect even better, while still offering many controls and options.

The new feature can be customized under the Groups & Circles tab in your Google Voice settings. However, settings for the feature are only available in the Google Voice desktop version for now and it’s not clear when Google may introduce the feature to Google Voice mobile apps.